Mazzoni to target MSM with CDC funding

Last week the Centers for Disease Control awarded community-based organizations around the country, including three Philadelphia-based health-services providers, a total of $216 million in HIV-prevention funding.

AccessMatters, Mazzoni Center and Philadelphia FIGHT were among 90 CBOs nationwide, and the only ones in Pennsylvania, to receive approximately $700,000 each to better serve high-risk groups including people of color, men who have sex with men, transgender individuals and people who inject drugs.

In a previous PGN article, AccessMatters and Philadelphia FIGHT discussed their plans for the funding, which included targeting Latino and African-American populations, respectively, within Philadelphia.

This week, PGN has learned that Mazzoni Center will use the funding to continue to focus efforts on MSM — a population in which the organization has had extremely high outcomes.

“Our target population is MSM, and we have diagnosed the most MSM in Philadelphia, according to the city,” said Nurit Shein, Mazzoni Center executive director. “Most of this testing has occurred at our Washington West location, which this funding has enabled to stay open and expand.”

Thanks to the funding, the testing site recently extended its hours and is now open on Sundays.

“The funding enables us to test more people, be more flexible with our hours and be more available to the community,” Shein said. “The longer hours, walk-in availability and rapid testing has helped remove as many barriers as possible.”

This is not the first time Mazzoni has received CDC funding for HIV prevention.

“This funding goes in cycles of five years. This is the third cycle we have received the funding,” Shein said. “So it’s not exactly new to us. We will continue to use it for HIV testing and linkage to care.”

According to Shein, Mazzoni boasts higher-than-average testing and care-linkage outcomes.

“At our main testing site in Wash West, we have tested over 9,000 people, making it the largest community-based testing site in Philadelphia,” Shein said. “In addition to diagnosing the most MSM in the city, our linkage to care is above 90 percent, which is extremely high. Most of the people who test positive at our facility do get linked to care, either at one of our practices or somewhere else, whichever is most appropriate.” 

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